With the Longhorns leading 6-5, that's when coach Augie Garrido brought in All-American reliever Huston Street to secure the team's berth in this weekend's best-of-three championship series.

The plan almost backfired.

Georgia tied the game at 6-6 off Street on a single to right-center field by Marshall Szabo, one of three hits off the right-hander, who stranded two more runners in the eighth before setting the Diamond Dogs down 1-2-3 in the ninth.

Street (6-1) got credit for the 7-6 victory after Texas scored in the bottom of the seventh on Carson Kainer's RBI hit.

"Against a guy like Street, you don't want to go deep in the count so you try to get to him early in the count," said Szabo, who swung at the first pitch he saw. "I don't stay in the box long anyway, so that first pitch down the middle I saw I was going to try and get a hit."

Georgia coach David Perno said he gave his hitters a plan before they went to the plate.

"We just told the left-handers to do what they did (Sunday). They had a good approach, and the right-handers we told to go ahead and go for the slider, commit to the slider and take it the other way," Perno said. "We just missed a few."

Freshman Joey Side was one.

With two out in the ninth, Side sliced a pitch down the line in right. The ball appeared to have home run distance before it drifted off into the seats just to the left of the foul pole.

Side grounded out back to Street on the next pitch to end the game.

"You've got to give Georgia credit," Street said. "They're a great team. When you leave your pitches up, a good team like Georgia will do that to you."

The Diamond Dogs were one of just six teams to score a run against Street all year.

In his previous 491/3 innings, Street had given up just 29 hits and eight earned runs. Szabo's RBI single made it nine.

"That gave us a little confidence, knowing that we could scratch out a run against a guy like that," Szabo said. "We hoped we could crack him a little bit. It just wasn't enough today."

For those unfamiliar with the Longhorn closer, Street is college baseball's equivalent to Eric Gagne of the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Philadelphia Phillies' Billy Wagner.

His stats are sparkling.

The junior came in with an ERA of 1.46 and 12 saves. He's also the Big 12 career-leader in saves with 42.

A first-round pick two weeks ago by Oakland, ESPN's Peter Gammons suggested that Street might get some save opportunities with the A's before the end of the year.

"I'm not worried about that (pro ball) yet," Street said. "I'm more worried about the rest of this week. We've got a chance to win a national championship."